Chapter 113 — Heavy Rain

Word came that the Dou and Wei families had exchanged betrothal gifts.

The rain fell in bean-sized drops, pouring down with a rush and in an instant turning Zhending County into a land of standing water.

Dou Yan stood beneath the covered corridor, and the spray kicked up where the downpour struck the bluestone paving soon soaked the hem of her skirt.

Suxin, straw cape and bamboo hat over her shoulders and clogs on her feet, came in through curtain upon curtain of rain.

"Miss, do go back inside and rest!" she urged Dou Yan even as she carefully took off her cape and hat and handed them to the maid beside her, fearful that a stray drop might dampen Dou Zhiwei's clothes. "It's raining too hard out there. I've tidied the greenhouse just as you instructed and set two steady old nurses to keep watch through the night, so set your mind at ease!"

How could Dou Yan set her mind at ease?

Spring rain is as precious as fine thread.

But if this spring rain kept falling thus, the crops newly sown would likely rot in the sodden ground.

She raised her head to the crow-black sky, and with a furrowed brow went inside.

Chen Yanzhou came through the rain.

"Miss, the weather looks wrong to me. Ought we not send someone to look in on the farm?" His face was grave.

"Master and I are of one mind." As Dou Yan spoke, the sky flared and a bolt of lightning streaked across it, followed by a rumble of thunder. "This rain won't stop any time soon, I fear. The east courtyard and the main house have both been repaired these past two years, but the west courtyard and the Hesou Hall—someone should be sent to see whether they're leaking anywhere."

Seeing that Dou Yan understood the situation, Chen Yanzhou was reassured.

Honggu came holding a tung-oil-paper umbrella, supporting Old Aunt Cui.

"So Master Chen is here too!" She greeted Chen Yanzhou, her eyes full of deep worry. "Shouyuan, this rain is too heavy. I fear the crops in the fields won't hold up. I must go back and see."

"How can you?" Dou Yan and Chen Yanzhou said as one. "If anyone goes, it should be us—how could we let you?"

They made everyone laugh, and the mood suddenly turned warm.

"What good would it do for you to go?" said her grandmother. "You know nothing of farming, and going would be no more than a glance from a galloping horse. I'd best go myself!" Then she instructed Shouyuan. "Prepare me a carriage. If the crops in the fields truly come to grief, once the rain stops we must think of some way to get everyone to replant quickly, or there'll be no harvest this year. Even if we waive their rents, they'll have a hard time of it, I fear. We'll need to set aside grain to lend them through the winter—otherwise people will starve."

Dou Yan had never lived through a famine year, and Chen Yanzhou had fared well even in the lean years; neither had the old lady's depth of feeling, and so neither felt her urgency. One urged, "In such heavy rain, what if you take a chill?" The other said, "Old Aunt Cui, there's no need to worry. Zhending has had favorable weather these past few years. If a flood really comes, the county and prefecture will find a way, and at the very least the court will send relief. You needn't be too anxious."

Old Aunt Cui shook her head stubbornly, insisting on going back to the farm to see for herself.

At her wit's end, Dou Yan said, "Then let me go myself!"

Naturally Old Aunt Cui would not agree. "You're a young girl—what could you do there?"

How Dou Ci had treated Old Aunt Cui these past years, Chen Yanzhou had taken to heart. He smiled and said, "If you're uneasy, why not let me go with Fourth Miss? Perhaps the rain will stop any moment! With you worn out from the journey, Fourth Miss would only fret at home."

That would do.

Dou Yan turned it over in her mind, and she and Chen Yanzhou talked at her grandmother from this side and that until the old lady had no strength to resist, and had to agree that Chen Yanzhou should accompany Dou Yan to the farm.

Suxin hurried to arrange for Chen Lanxu, Duan Bing, and the others to escort them; Sulan urged the driver to harness the carriage; Ganlu and Sujuan—one prepared tea and provisions for the road, the other the rain gear. In no more than the time it takes half a stick of incense to burn, all was ready.

When the two young servants who attended Chen Yanzhou arrived, the party set out into the rain, capes on their backs and umbrellas over their heads.

At the ornamental gate they met Dou Yan, just returned from paying her respects to the Second Old Madam.

The two old women who had escorted Dou Yan back bent their knees in salute, calling her "Fourth Miss" in fawning tones and asking eagerly, "In such heavy rain, where are you going? Shall we old servants escort you part of the way?"

Dou Yan recognized them as attendants from the Second Old Madam's household.

Who would have thought Dou Yan could win the Second Old Madam's favor?

Pleased, she cast Dou Ming a glance and told Suxin to reward each of the old women with a red packet.

The two old women thanked her again and again.

But Dou Ming's face burned with shame at that glance from Dou Yan.

She thought of how she had gone through such heavy rain to pay her respects to the Second Old Madam, and the old lady had shown her only a somewhat kinder face than usual—unlike Dou Yan, who had merely sent word that the rain was too heavy and dispatched an old woman to bring the Second Old Madam some lotus-seed powder and poria paste, at which the old lady's face had bloomed like a flower, and she had said to Nurse Liu, "This child may have lost her mother, but she is blessed after all—no Wu family, but there's the He family; no He family, but there's the Wei family. She has fulfilled her mother's wish and become a heir's wife."

"Just so, just so," that old creature Nurse Liu had chimed in to curry favor. "Soon she'll be a marchioness, of the first rank—the foremost of all the girls in our household!"

Dou Yan couldn't even hear her—was there any need to flatter so?

She swallowed her temper until she reached the gate, and there saw Dou Yan, surrounded and attended on every side.

Not like them, with only a few maids and old women—but guards clearing the way, maids attending close at hand, and beside her an accounting clerk running to and fro, as though some young lord were on procession. No—even a young lord of an ordinary household on procession would not put on such a display.

Dou Ming could not help but sneer, "Sister is soon to be a marchioness. Why not simply order the guards and stewards about you for anything you need—or at the least, direct your maids and old women? Why must you go in person? Could it be that the marriage with the Wei family has fallen through again? But surely Sister can still command the servants of the house? Have our servants not always stood in awe of you?"

This was a matter between the Dou sisters; outsiders had no place to weigh in.

Chen Lanxu and the others stood silent as mountains.

But the two old women from the Second Old Madam's household drew in a sharp breath, cursing their luck inwardly—how had they come to be saddled with such an errand? Was it not said throughout the East Mansion that the Fifth Miss of the West Mansion was not to be trifled with? Next time such a task came up, they would sooner brave Nurse Liu's scolding than fail to keep their distance.

The attendants beside Dou Ming trembled with fear, not daring to breathe a word, and Old Woman Zhou, her head streaming with sweat and heedless of rank, pressed Dou Ming to apologize to Dou Yan: "Whoever heard of speaking to an elder sister so!"

Dou Ming set her jaw and would not bow her head.

Dou Yan gave a soft laugh. "I never imagined our family would produce a Strong-Necked Magistrate. It would be a shame not to grant your wish." With that, she stepped out through the hanging-flower gate.